Trouble in dullsville
by zerosmelody5
Summary: Marik always gets abused by his father. One day while trying to get away from his dad he stumbles apon an abandoned house and finds out it's secret, and he and his twin 'move in'. Soon after they go to school and more... complications show up. Lots and lots of drama, rated for suggestive topics, mentions of rape, no lemons.
1. Chapter 1

(Summery: Marik escapes his dads furry and tries to remember where his brother Melvin was staying for the night, finding himself in the poor part of town. He finds an abandoned house.)

Marik made his way across the stones that made a pathway across a creek. He slipped on a particularly small stone and landed on his shin, and getting wet by the rushing waters. He stood up, steadying himself and cursing from the pain, and continued his way across the creek. He slipped again when he hit solid ground, landing on the same leg he had just barely hurt.

Why was his luck so bad today? First he messed up on the time and didn't get out of the house fast enough and get beat up by his insane dad, then he nearly got run over by a car, and now he kept tripping on the same leg over and over again.

He made his way through the field of weeds like he usually did every day around this time, and walked down the poor people road. There were a lot of abandoned houses; he explored them a bit, even thought about moving into one of them without anyone noticing. He was still thinking about that idea, why keep living in a stupid neighborhood, with a father who hated his guts, oh yeah, his brother.

Marik's brother, Melvin, was the only reason he even still lived in that house. Melvin was Marik's sort of protector. Melvin could take care of himself, he knew how to defend himself against his father, he knew how to provide for himself, how to get food for the two 12 year old kids. Stealing was a big deal for Marik and his perfect ways, but Melvin didn't have a problem with it, so he was the one who did it. That's probably what he's doing right now.

Melvin was never home. He was always at his friend's house; Marik would be at a friend's house if he had any. Melvin offered to take him with him to a friends house but Marik never felt welcome, not that he didn't feel welcome at his dad's house but at least there he wasn't intruding upon someone else.

Marik found his way to the end of the street he was on and turned the corner, heading up the other streets, trying to remember which house Melvin was staying at. He told him, but he guessed he wasn't really paying much attention, cause he didn't even remember if Melvin was even in the poor section of town. He came to a sudden stop at the corner of a certain street he had never noticed before.

The street was clear of houses except for one at the very end of the street. It was a little bigger and brighter than the other gloomy houses in that gloomy city with abandoned streets and a fog that was heavy and never left, just lingered, blocking the sun making it always shadowy and sad.

He felt the need to explore the mysterious abandoned house. One thing that made this house different from the rest was it was a two-story house unlike the other one-story apartment like houses. He practically ran up to it, knocking to check to make sure it was abandoned. The door opened a crack at his touch. He entered, "Hello" he said, waiting a second for a reply, there was none.

He looked around the house. It was obviously old and abandoned. Rotting floors, spider webs everywhere, layers of dust covering the floors and furniture, which was flowery and girly, and ripped. Obviously the previous owner was a girl, but he wondered why she left this tacky furniture behind.

He suddenly came to a stop, hearing a loud bang upstairs. Looking at the staircase that was to his right, "Hello?" He called again making his way to the bottom of the stairs. Slowly he walked up the stairs, step by step, every other stair creaked.

He finally made it to the top step and looked around an abandoned room, it looked like a very tidy person previously owned this room. A made bed with pinkish frilly sheets and pillows, an old desk that had papers and books and pencils all organized perfectly, a clean wall free of posters, and a floor with nothing but dust. The only thing it was lacking was the person who made that loud noise.

He saw a book on the floor, concluding that that was the source of the noise. He walked over, picked up the book and was about to place it on the pile with the rest of the books when the front door slammed. He straightened up, and ran down the stairs to see no one there. He ran to the door and opened it, then ran outside to see no one there.

_Okay? That's weird._ He thought remembering his original plan to find his brother. The need to explore the house abandoned for right then. He finally remembered he was staying at his friend,Yugi's house in the rich section of town.

He made his way there using the street instead of his shortcut creek, to get back into the rich section of the gloomy town, heading in the direction of Yugi's house.

**So that was the first chapter, Bakura, Melvin, Yugi, and his grandpa will come in in the next chapter.**

**Yes, Marik and Melvin are going to be twins, and yes there 12, bakura's going to be 13**

**Please don't get offended that I call it the poor part and the rich part of town, I called it that because I was sitting in history, one day like a month ago, and my teacher mentioned the saying "she/he came from the wrong side of the track" and I thought of that today, and decided that I would, instead of separating the town by a train track I would separate it by a creek.**

**What else do I have to say… oh yeah, Marik still has the book with him, he still has the bloody knee, and he has some bruises from his dads beating.**

**Yep I think that's it for this chapter. Please Review. Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 2

"What happened to you?" Melvin said. "Did dad do that, or did those older jerks get a hold of you"

"Dad left a few bruises but I did not have an interaction with those bullies, I took my shortcut, and slipped" Marik said joining his brother and Yugi.

"I'll go get some medicine," Yugi said getting up and heading out of his room.

"You slipped, how many times? It looks like you fell quite a bit today" Melvin grabbed Mariks leg to get a good look at it.

"I did, like 6 times, today was defiantly not my day" Marik said pulling his leg out of his brothers uncomfortable grasp, and laying back on the bed.

"So why are you all dusty? And what's with the book" Melvin said, dusting of some dirt and dust off Marik, and snatching the stolen book from his brother.

"Long story" Marik glanced at his brother, and grabbed the book back.

"I've got time," Melvin grinned at his brother.

"Fine, I took a little nap earlier and woke up as soon as dad came home and he was in not in the mood to be bugged by children, especially his own, and when he saw me he started to beat the crap out of me. I escaped before he could seriously injure or kill me and decided to pay you a visit, but I forgot where you were, so I thought I'd make my way to the other side of town, my favorite part and try to remember where you were. So while I was wondering around, I saw a house I didn't recognize and it was weird for that house to be in that part of town,"

"Why"

"It was a two-story house, not one-story like the rest, and It' was old like the others but the others are at least livable while this one, it had rotting wood, spider webs every where the kitchen was half burned down and some widows were broken. The only thing that wasn't destroyed or trashed was the upstairs bedroom, it was strangely tidy, nothing out of place except for this book" he held up the book, "which is the reason I even went upstairs, was because I went in the house and saw everything trashed, I headed toward the kitchen, where I saw everything burned, when I heard a BANG upstairs. I headed up stairs and saw the book lying on the floor. I picked it up then I heard the front door slam shut, so I went downstairs and left not remembering the book and came here."

"So all in all your scared of a little ghost, Marik I thought it was something important" that earned Melvin a punch on the arm from his brother.

Yugi walked in with three mugs filled with hot tea that he nearly dropped when he remembered the real reason he left the room. He set down the mugs and rushed out of the room again muttering to himself about how stupid he was for forgetting.

"So do you know what Monday is?" Melvin asked his brother.

"Monday" he answered matter-of-factly.

"No dummy, Halloween"

"Halloween, really, I thought that wasn't for a few more weeks"

"Nope, Monday"

"Crap, I don't even know what I want to be"

"I know, why don't you go as yourself." Melvin chuckled as he got another punch for his brother.

"What's today?"

"Wednesday,"

"Ok I still have some time" Yugi came back in with some Band-Aids and alcohol and began to take care of Mariks knee.

"I better get this book back to that house, I don't want to be stuck with it. Thanks for letting me stay the night Yugi" Marik said before turning to his brother.

"You know you can still use my Idea of going as yourself, I promise I won't sue you" Melvin chuckled.

"Ha-ha very funny, don't you dare give yugi any problems when I leave the house I'm going back home so don't expect me to come back."

"Okay, but are you sure dad is gone."

"It's Thursday, he's always gone on Thursday."

"Okay,"

"Bye" Marik said as he walked in the direction he came from last night. He walked toward the spot at the creek about a half a mile away from the road that is his short cut to the other side of town. The waters weren't as high as they were yesterday, so he made it across without slipping like he did yesterday. He began toward the house that the book belonged in. He had to admit that house did give him the creeps, but he wouldn't be a scaredy cat like his brother thought. No way.

He opened the door and noticed a second pare of footprints in the dust that headed out the door. _What the…? Did I head up the stairs again and I just don't remember it. No, there are no other footprints heading back up the stairs. Weird…?_ He looked around. He moved as far as the couch before he called out. "Hello?"

"What are you doing here? You don't belong here. Get out" Marik turned around to see someone blocking the door that was his only way out. He had white hair that reached the middle of his back, red eyes, and was wearing a uniform for the all boys' boarding school about an hour away from the town. Marik knew that because his dad had been sending him and Melvin to it for the past 3 years. He looked irritated that someone had come into his house without permission.

"Who are you?" Marik asked.

"That's none of your business, now do as I say and get out!" The white haired stranger said.

"Do you live here?"

"That's none of your business, Get out."

"I just came to return this book" Marik held up the book.

"Well I can handle that, hand it over and get out." He stretched his hand out for his book, which Marik placed in it, lightly touching the other boys hand which was ice cold.

"Why is your hand so cold?" Marik asked.

"I don't know I don't feel anything." The boy said as though that weren't something to be worried about.

"Why, what's wrong with you"

"That's none of your business. Why are you still here."

"I have nowhere else to go " Marik said, sitting on the dusty couch, a puff of dust flying as he practically jumped on the comfy couch.

"What are you doing? Will you stop that?"

"its fun, man, loosen up why are you so grouchy anyway?"

"Cause some random kid came into my house disturbing the peace I had and started wondering around messing with stuff and stealing my stuff, Why else would I be?"

"I don't know maybe cause your wearing a school uniform when it's summer, I didn't even know you went to my school, I've never seen you before, are you going to be a new student? Why did you move into this old rotting house?" Marik said all this in one breath.

"I did go to that school, now I don't, I… died four years ago." The boy said sitting down on the couch next to Marik.

"So you lived here?" marik said not wanting to bring up how he died.

"Yeah, with my mom and her butler." He said, looking at the floor then looking at Marik, a hint of sadness in his eyes. In a second it was gone. "But that's none of your business, you should leave."

"What's your name" Marik asked still ignoring the boys request for him to leave.

"Bakura" That sparked something in Mariks memory.

"_A student last year used to do that." The principle said, "But he's dead now, so he got what was coming to him."_

"_Really who?" Marik asked, he was always curious when it came to death. He always wondered what would happen if someone died._

"_Bakura Touzoku, He was a bright young student just like you, he had so much potential but he never did anything to get his life going in the right direction. Just sat around in class, not doing anything, and when one of his teachers would tell him to pay attention, he would just say some snide remark, and go back to his own world. He would be in your grade right now, if he hadn't died." His principle looked at him with a sad face. "You two would've been best friends, I swear"_

"_No swearing, How did he die?" Marik asked, wishing he could've had a best friend._

"_I don't know I was only told he wouldn't be coming back on account of his death." The principle stood up and walked to the door. "You can go back to class now, but don't think that if you get caught doing that again, that you won't be punished. This is your warning."_

"_Yes sir" Marik said exciting the principles office, not intending to keep his promise._

"My principle told me about you," Marik said bringing himself back to reality.

"Great, now I wonder what he couldv'e told your, probably just crap that isn't true, like the fact that I was a bright student but didn't put my knowledge to use"

"Something like that and the fact that he thought we would be best friends, and partners in crime. Oh what else did he say, something about swearing."

"I never swore at that school"

"I know, he swore that we would be good friends if you were still around, oh look at the sun I better be going. Bye" Marik said rushing to the door.

_Finally, he left. I wonder what that was about, and what did the sun have to do with it? Oh well, at least he's gone. _Bakura thought heading up the stairs to his room and placing the book back where it belongs.

**So that was chapter two! Explanations will (possibly) come next chapter, maybe.**

**I hope you enjoyed it! Oh by the way that flash back was between Marik and his principle, after Marik did something bad, something I haven't thought of yet, I just sat at the computer and wrote. I didn't really think about what it was about but when the principle said that he had a student last year that did the same thing, he's referring to he did what Marik did, and a lot more stuff that Marik did but hadn't gotten caught yet. If you haven't guessed Marik is the rebellious type. He doesn't have any friends and he doesn't know why, and that makes him angry, so he takes out his anger on the school.**

**Um…oh as you can see by the release date of this chapter, its nowhere near Halloween but I don't care I wanted Halloween to be around the time that Marik and Bakura first meet. Christmas will be in maybe like 5 chapters, maybe. As you can see I want this story to be a long story. I hate to brag but ill do it anyway. I love my plot line.**

**Yami-the-dark: I'm so glad you like the story. I was hoping you would!**

**So I guess that's all I have to say, so bye!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey zerosmelody here! First before I get on with the story I just want to address something that was brought to my attention last chapter. Just so you know the all boys school I was talking about starts in January and ends in august, I just called their summer summer because well to me a summer is not just a season it's a long break from that horrid place for torturing kids called "school". So by summer I'm referring to the long break they have from school. Also another thing, Mariks reaction to Bakura being a ghost, I was supposed to put something there but I got distracted at that second and then I forgot but his reaction wasn't that big because he has always had imaginary friends since he doesn't have any friends, so he doesn't really care that he's a ghost. Sorry if you think my reaction was dull, I just forgot. Sorry. Anyway enough of my talking and on with the story. Hope you enjoy!**

Marik made his way across the creek and back to his house. He didn't know why he felt the way he did. He didn't even know what he felt exactly. It was a sort of mixture between longing, frustration, and pain. Being around people who didn't treat him like crap made him feel this way, he didn't usually feel it as he was barely ever treated as if he weren't some scum on the bottom of a shoe. People hated him and he didn't know why.

He ran to in the house and to his room, closing the door and banging his fists against it in anger. Over and over again, even when he felt slivers stabbing at the delicate skin covering his hands, he was used to pain so he didn't care, he was too angry at himself to calm down.

The only thing that made him stop was the sound of his dads old beaten up truck pulling into the driveway. He froze, no his dad couldn't be home yet it was Thursday, he always worked until late on Thursday, either that or spent his time at the local bar. There was no way he should be home yet. No.

The front door opened up and he heard his dad swearing at the bad day he'd had. Marik decided to stay in his room safe from his dad and his rage. If he found his son right now, he was sure to take his anger out on him, and Marik didn't need that today.

Marik walked as silently as he could to the window so he could escape, but stopped short as the old floor gave a loud creak under his foot. He lifted his foot up as fast as he could but the damage was already done. His dad came in practically breaking down the door. He smiled at the sight of his son sneaking scared to the window.

"So decided to come home have you, well don't even think your going to sneak through a window to escape me now. Your going to pay for what you did to me, along with what you did to my beautiful wife." He said with a sneer on his face as he started to walk towards Marik, who backed away turning to open the window, if he made it out the window he could escape the beating he knew would come. Before he could climb out the window though his father pulled him back in.

Melvin had the feeling to go home and check up on Marik, see if he got home okay. He told Yugi he'd be back in a few hours and left for home.

When he got to the house he walked up the steps that let to the apartment. He hesitated at the door preparing himself for what he might see. He opened the door convincing himself he was crazy for thinking something was wrong. He looked around the empty apartment. _So far so good no signs of dad, _he thought with a sigh, then made his way to his and his twins room.

HE opened the door and gasped, then rushed over to his unconscious brother. _Looks like dad was extra pissed today, he's never gone so far that Marik has become unconscious. _He got up and looked for some medical stuff to help his brother but there was none. "If he's going to beat the living daylights out of him he could at least get some stuff to help him after." Melvin said to no one particular.

He headed back into his room and picked up his brother, who was lighter than a normal 12 year old. "And he could at least feed him." He said carrying Marik out the door and back to Yugi's house.

Two hours later, Marik woke up in Yugi's room and wondered how he got there. He sat up, with difficulty, on Yugi's bed. He looked around, he was alone, then looked down at what was now his bandaged up stomach, legs, and arms. _How did that happen? How did I get here? _He stood up and limped over to the door, opened it, and made his way to Yugi's living room, where he found Melvin and Yugi's watching TV in silence.

Marik stumbled a little on his way to the couch, which alerted the others of his presence.

"So your finally up?" Melvin asked.

"No Sherlock, I'm sleep walking." Marik said as soon as he got to the couch.

"Hey you've done it before" Melvin shrugged.

"Have not"

"Have too"

"Guys please don't argue. So Marik how are you feeling?"

"Swell," Marik squeezed his eyes shut, grabbing handfuls of hair with both hands and yanking, trying to distract himself from the massive headache that had consumed when he woke up.

"Do you want something for pain?" Yugi asked.

"No, my hairs fine" Marik said truthfully but apparently Yugi took it as sarcasm cause he ran of to the bathroom cupboard to get some Tylenol. He came back with a glass of water and a small pill. "Thanks" Marik grabbed them out of his hand and swallowed the pill without the water.

"So what did dad do?" Melvin asked.

"Well I went to return the book at the house, then left." Marik started, deciding to leave out the part that he handed the book to the ghost boy who lived there, "When I got home I sat on the bed for a little while then dad came home, and when I tried to escape out the window, the floor creaked and told him that I was there. So he came into our room and…" he paused not wanting to say any more.

"Does your dad really beat you guys up?" Yugi asked.

"No," Melvin said, "For some reason he only likes to beat him up" He gestured to Marik who went back to tugging on his hair. "My guess is that he doesn't like Marik because he killed mom-"

"Don't you dare mention that!" Marik glared at his brother.

"Sorry, I forgot you are still sensitive about that." Melvin said, earning another glare from his brother.

"I'm not sensitive about it I just don't like people mentioning it, especially not when they accuse me of it, it's not my fault the doctors didn't know what was wrong with mom when she had me. I can't believe you would say that." Marik was on the verge of tears now.

Yugi, who didn't know what they were talking about, starred back and forth at the arguing brothers, not knowing what to do or say, he decided not to intrude on there personal business.

"Yeah, it's not my fault either," Melvin said, his voice raised from his joking tone to almost yelling. "If it weren't for you mom would still be here, and dad wouldn't be the man he is now, I want mom, I… I wish you were never born!" Marik's glare was instantly replaced by a frown as he starred at his brother in disbelief, now tears started to fall. He stood up, gave his brother one last hurt look, and ran out the door as fast as he could in his hurt condition. Melvin watched his brother for a milli-second before he too was on his feet and out the door, after his brother. Yugi just sat and watch the whole thing still not knowing what to do.

Melvin looked around the street, looking for his brother. He caught a glimpse of him disappearing around the corner to the next street on his way to the other side of town. Melvin was off after him, _why don't I ever participate in P.E., if I did I could easily catch up to him. Dang, I lost him._ Melvin couldn't see his brother anymore. He stopped, looking around and then continued on his way across town._ I bet anything I'll find him there._

Marik was out of that house and half way to the creek in no time, _why would he say that? Fine if he doesn't want me around, then I'll disappear. He still doesn't know where the house is I'll go there. _He picked up his pace when he heard someone running behind him, since it was obviously Melvin. He didn't want to see Melvin again right now, he didn't want him to be able to talk to him like that again. He was used to it by dad, but by Melvin, the only thing in the world that actually cared for him, he couldn't take that, he just couldn't.

He was across the creek and to Bakuras house in no time. He ran up the steps flinging the door open and running up the stairs, and hiding in the corner to cry. He felt so sore, but he didn't care about that. He didn't care that he was on the verge of collapsing, the only thing he cared about was the fact that Melvin wished he wasn't born.

He heard footsteps coming up the stairs. "Hey what are you doing…" He heard Bakura say, but didn't answer just curled up tighter in his little ball. _Great there's that feeling again._ All of a sudden he didn't know what he wanted to do more, cry or punch something.

He felt a cold hand on his back, and looked up in surprise. The spirit was sitting next to him looking somewhat concerned. "What happened?"

"Why do you care?" he snapped back. The spirit took his hand off his back.

"Because a really annoying little boy is crying his eyes out in my room, I should at least get to know why" Marik decided to tell him since it was his home.

"Me and my brother had a fight and he wished I was never born." He decided not to tell the whole truth about it, especially why he was all bruised up.

"…And… I'm kinda not seeing the problem here"

"You wouldn't understand." Marik said, placing his head back in its spot on his knees.

"I wouldn't?" Bakura looked surprised.

"No but since you insist, my life is screwed up, I don't have any friends, everybody hates me, and my brother is the only one who ever really cared about me so him telling me that is like saying 'your on your own, baby brother'" Marik said.

"What about your mom or dad?" Bakura asked.

"Are you kidding, my dad is at the top of the 'Hate Marik' list." Marik said.

"Is that where you got all those bruises from?"

"That's not of your business" Marik said, shrinking lower into his legs.

"Oh, ok my bad for thinking friends share stuff like that excuse me" Bakura said getting up off the dusty floor. Mariks head immediately shot up.

"Friends?" He questioned Bakuras word choice.

"Yeah I guess. I mean I don't really know that much about what qualifies as friend behavior but I'd say the whole spill your secrets and comforting thing would definitely be friend like," Bakura said, dusting off his hands on his pants, even though there was no dust on them. "Besides, you look like you could use a friend and I know I'm a ghost and everything but we still could have fun, don't you think?" Bakura said looking out the window. Marik nodded and lowered his head back down to knees. "Is that your brother?"

**Okay that was chapter 3 I know I left you all in suspense but I will pick up right where I left off in the next chapter. Hope you liked it review please! When you review know that I wouldn't get offended if you pointed out something that doesn't make sense to you, I will explain it in the next chapter that I put up, plus my mind kinda wonders around like the fact I didn't explain the whole school thing last chapter. Oh just in case I didn't mention it before yes Melvin and Marik are twins, Melvin's just the more mature one so he sounds more 17 year old more often, but he still is just a small cute 12 year old. And Marik is wearing nothing but shorts after he gets bandaged up. I hate these two brothers fighting, but I couldn't help but make them fight, I mean that is how Marik and Bakura become friends right? Yep that's how they become friends, so anyway.**

**Bye! Zero-out!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey here's chapter 4.**

**Thanks for reviewing: Yami-the-dark, and wolfairer, your reviews were so nice! Thanks. I'm glad you like it.**

**So anyway, wow no rambling that's new, I think. Enjoy!**

"…Is that him?" Bakura said, pointing out the window at a guy who looks awfully like Marik.

Marik stood up immediately looking where Bakura was pointing. Sure enough, there was his brother, looking around the street corner, then start down it.

_This must be it, it's the only place he would run to, _Melvin made his way up the street and knocked on the door. _What am I thinking it's deserted, and it's not like Marik would open the door for me or anyone else when he's upset or angry, or both._

Melvin opened the door, looking around the small house_, Why he would go here I have no idea, someone should call a house keeper, stupid, no one can cause their phone probably got shut off awhile ago, oh yeah no one lives here of course it got shut off. _Melvin looked at the dusty floor and saw three pairs of footprints; one was a completely different shoe than the other two, which lead him upstairs.

The last step creaked when he put his wait on it, making him jump a little at the sudden noise. Speaking of noise, it was so quiet he could feel his heart beating faster, he, like his twin, got the chills around this place. It was defiantly not a place for kids 12 years old to play. He looked around, not seeing anyone around made him wonder if he had the right house. Yes he had the right house, but he was apparently wrong about Marik being here.

_Wait, there were three sets of footprints, two leading upstairs and one downstairs, two people went up and only one came down, but no ones hear, what did the other person climb through the window or something, no that can't be because the windows are still shut and they have spider webs and dust. _He walked over to one window and dusted it off, making a few spiders in the webs on the window scurry away. He looked out over the part of the town that he could see from his not-so-perfect view. He then turned around and looked the room over again, no one. Wait_ a second, what's that?_

Marik starred at his brother from under the bed. Melvin turned away from the room and walked toward the nearest window. He dusted it off and Marik shuddered at the sight of the spiders crawling away, didn't it bug Melvin? No, especially not when he was either upset or mad at his brother. Marik saw him look out the old window, then turn around and look around the room again. Then he looked at the floor and his eyes lit up some. _Oh. Crap. I forgot the dusty floor reveals my footprints. _Melvin started to follow their path with wide eyes then they looked confused. Both Marik and Melvin heard a crash downstairs.

Melvin ran down the stairs, giving Marik the opportunity to get rid of the footprints. He hurried out from under the bed and grabbed the broom that was conveniently in the corner of the room, and got to work covering his tracks as fast as he could.

Melvin raced down the stairs, and looked around to find no one there he looked in the kitchen and found a huge pile of pans on the ground, Melvin looked disappointed. _Of course he's not down here but there's another pair of footprints. Man I see what Marik meant by half burned this place looks terrible._

Melvin abandoned the pans on the floor and headed back up the stairs. He stopped short at what he saw.

Marik swept up as fast as he could and when all the dust was in the corner he put the broom back and turned around.

"Marik, I-I…" Marik ran out of room as fast as he could not caring if his brother followed him, he sure wasn't going to listen to him stutter out apologies much less talk to him. He ran out the door, and ran, He didn't know where, he just ran. Melvin chased after him but lost him and his way after awhile. Marik stopped running, and looked around to see where he was. _What? How did I get here? I don't even remember crossing the creek. _Marik starred up at his dads apartment that magically appeared in front of him. He wanted to go inside and sleep, he was so tired from today with all the running, but his dad was home again, and he didn't want another meeting like what happened this morning.

_This morning, everything was all right, No it was not all right. It wasn't as messed up as right now, but it was still hell. I still had a father who beat me whenever he saw me; I was still barely at home. I was still as adventurous as I was before, I still had no friends…scratch that, one friend who happens to be dead, and I still was only 12 and not able to do anything for my future. But one thing I didn't have was my brother._

He walked back to the house, hoping Melvin was still there, he was now ready to her his brother's apology, or what ever he had to say, all he wanted right now was his brother back. After some thinking he realized that his brother just said that out of anger, not meaning it. _But it was still his fault, he brought up dad, and he knows what that does to me._

He walked in the house and saw Bakura sitting on the couch not paying attention to anything but messing up his white long hair. Marik walked over and sat on the couch, wanting to ask if Melvin was still hear but before he had the chance to, Bakura began to speak.

"Your twin isn't here," He said, finally leaving his hair alone and looking at Marik. "Do you think you could clean up everywhere, I'm sick of this messy house, it's so… depressing," Marik smiled at him.

"I've gotta go look for my brother, I'll be back tomorrow, K?" He said getting up and heading for the door Bakura started playing with his hair again.

Marik finally found Melvin under a tree by the creek on the richer half of town. He wordlessly sat down next to him. They were silent for a while, and then Melvin decided it was about time to break the silence.

"I'm sorry, Marik" He said looking at his brother for the first time since he arrived.

Marik shook his head. "Forget about it," He said leaning up against his brother about ready to fall asleep.

Melvin let his brother lie on his shoulder for a while, he was happy he wasn't mad anymore, he really hadn't meant to say what he did, it just came out. A few minutes passed and Melvin realized his brother was asleep. _Where am I gonna go tonight? Yugi's probably had enough of me for a while, maybe Joey, or Tristan, definitely not tea. Maybe we could spend some time in that creepy house of Mariks…_

Melvin carried his brother to the House, trying his best not to disturb his sleep, luckily he didn't wake up. He went in and up the stairs, he remembered there being a bed there, maybe it could work for a few nights. He set him gently down on the bed and went down stairs where he jumped. Someone was standing in the middle of the living room looking worried.

"What's wrong with Marik?" the stranger asked.

"He fell asleep, who are you?" Melvin asked, walking toward the stranger that somehow knew Marik and was worried about him.

"Bakura, you two didn't get into a fight did you, He told me you can be a bit rough sometimes…" Melvin interrupted Bakura.

"You two talked about me? How do you know my little brother?" Melvin asked, Bakura sat on the couch and started playing with his hair, thinking about how much he had been so out of character just before.

"I've gotta go. I have a life." Bakura said, walking out the door.

_Okay so obviously he doesn't know who I am, that's a good thing right. I wonder what happened between them, that boy better be telling the truth if he hurt Marik I'm gonna make him join me. _Bakura went to the back of the house, to his favorite tree that he loved to sit in and just watch the sun set, and/or think of nothing unparticular.

_What's his problem, who even is he? What am I going to do now, the suns about to set, maybe I should go to bed, or try and clean up around here this place is a mess? Nah what am I thinking. I'll leave the cleaning to Marik. I'll just sit. Wait. And then fall asleep possibly. Maybe._ Melvin sat on the couch, and apparently was more exhausted then he thought because he fell asleep a couple minutes after sitting down.

**Eww spiders they freak me out, so they made up and are going to be staying at Bakuras for a few days… without Bakuras permission, what's wrong with them, anyway, in like a couple chapters will be Halloween, probably next chapter, maybe. Any way, please review. I hope you liked it!**

**Zero out!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey everyone. Sorry for the HUGE delay on getting this chapter up. I have been so busy working on 'When Your Evil' that I totally neglected my other stories, sadly, and I just worked on that one story. But amazingly I got the best inspiration for this chapter and I got a whole bunch of ideas for later chapters. So I hopefully wont get too much writers block for a few more chapters. Just to tell you, I hate to do this but for like most of the rest of 'summer' will be skipped, like, as in brief mentions of small events that aren't really important, and some really important events or something like that. I personally would like to just skip summer and head straight to school, which I have big writing plans for, but that would be mean seeing as how I already got your hopes up for Halloween and Christmas.**

**Thanks for reviewing Yami-the-dark, and XxBlack-And-WhitexX, well let's justs say that ghosts can touch and pick up stuff for the sake of my story. hehe. XD so any way on with the very delayed chapter you've all been waiting for. Halloween. Enjoy!**

Melvin made his way to the mysterious Bakura Touzoku's house carrying a bag of food in his right hand, a large costume in his left. The costume was a firefly, Marik had wanted to be something, he didn't say anything specific, and the costume was the cheapest there at that stupid place. Marik told him specifically not to steal it, so he didn't.

Marik had been doing so much lately, he couldn't say no. That creepy house wasn't so creepy now that it was almost spotless. _Marik would make a really good housewife. _Melvin snickered at what he just thought. Marik would smack him in the head for that. The house was just around the corner now.

Melvin couldn't wait to see his brother in the costume he bought him. It even came with tights. _I wonder what Bakura would think; I bet he won't stop laughing for months._ Melvin sped up a little at the thought of seeing the other two's reaction to the costume.

He opened the door that creaked a little by age, and entered the very clean house.

"Take your shoes off" Marik demanded as soon as Melvin entered. Melvin left his shoes by the door along with the costume and walked across the living room to the coffee table, and sat on the couch, setting the bag on the table. "Good, food I'm starving." Marik grabbed the bag and rummaged through it. Something dawned on Melvin.

"Hey Marik," Marik looked up for a second then back in the bag.

"Yes?"

"Why doesn't Bakura eat anything?" Melvin said picking up a book that was lying on the table, and flipping it over in his hand. The title read "Pillage". _Nerd._

"I don't know maybe he just goes out to eat or doesn't like to eat in front of people remember that time I wouldn't eat in front of you for like a month, and you got worried cause you thought I wasn't eating, and made a REALLY big deal about it." Oh yes, Melvin remembered perfectly. They were both 10 then, Marik was named the smartest kid in the 5th grade, again 'nerd' and they had a banquet in honor of the top 2 people in their grade and since Marik was the first smartest, he was given the 'honor' of eating first. Everyone was staring at him, lets just say he is not going to be in any play or anything that involves standing in front of people anytime soon, he ran away screaming and crying and it took him a month to even let anyone see him eat. 6th grade, he was again named the smartest person in the grade but this time the teachers knew better.

"Yeah I remember, where is he anyway?" Melvin asked.

"I don't know probably watching the sun set as usual, he likes the sun" _Reminds him of the days he was still alive, I guess. _Marik sat on the couch next to Melvin and smacked his feet down off the coffee table. His stomach growled angrily at him. He jumped up and made sandwiches for dinner with the stuff Melvin brought.

After they ate their sandwiches, Melvin went upstairs to go to sleep. Marik stayed downstairs and waited for Bakura to come back in.

When Bakura finally got tired of sitting outside longing for what he couldn't have, he came back in to find Marik asleep on the couch. He sat next to him very quietly and envied the fact that he was able to sleep so soundly. Bakura was barely able to sleep, and when he did most of the time he had the unpleasant experience of reliving his death so he avoided it at all costs, he didn't want to risk it. Marik looked so peaceful. He sat there and watched Marik until morning.

**I know this chapter was short and a kind of filler but oh well at least it's something.**

**Just some random notes, first off, I just chose some random book for the coffee table and the first one that came to my mind was the first book to the "Pillage" trilogy by obert sky, Pillage. I'm so excited, the third book came out of "Pilogy" and I cant wait to read it. There is a library in their town and Marik does have a library card so he can check out stuff, so there will probably be random books that I've read that will be from the library. Marik still can't stand or do anything in front of people. Marik is trying to keep it from Melvin that Bakura is dead because he's afraid Melvin wouldn't be as understanding as Marik is about it, and he doesn't want to be taken away from his only friend. By the way, it isn't supposed to be creepy that Bakura watches Marik in his sleep, he is just longing to be able to sleep peacefully like him. The next chapter will have the costume which Marik didn't notice throughout the entire chapter.**

**Any questions? Review and I will be sure to answer them next chapter. Like it, hate it? Review and tell me. Want to make me happy? Review Please!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Just so you guys know the idea for Mariks costume came from my older sister. So I just had a WTF moment. I mean how am I going to write about that. I cant really think of a good place to, you know, start this chapter so I'm going to start it close to around Christmas time, also close to the twins birthday. Yes marik and Melvin are still going to be staying at Bakuras, I think I want them to stay there for most of the remander of 'summer'. I hope your not too disappointed that I decided to skip Halloween. Marik just makes a big deal about the costume then decides to go as Melvin, so he spikes his hair up and walks around with his nose in the air and his chest pushed out, which Melvin finds amusing and so does Bakura. Melvin goes as himself too, except he does a better job at it since he is him.**

**Again I'm sorry for skipping so many things, especially Halloween and thanksgiving, but I just couldn't think of any thing for that period of time, plus as I think I've mentioned in an earlier chapter I would like to just skip everything and just get on to school and a bigger plot I guess yes Bakura does come with them to school so he doesn't disappear.**

**Thanks Sunbird909, and fan of this fic for reviewing. I like reviews, especially yours you peoples make me blush. *Blushes***

**By the way, also Melvin took Bakura being a ghost very well. He had his suspicions and they turned out right. Melvins smarter than Marik gives him credit for. I hope you like this chapter.**

"Melvin please hurry, they expect these to be turned in in a few days and it'll take a few days for them to arrive through mail." Marik said, keeping the door to Bakura's house open waiting for his brother. He held an envolope in his hand. Snow was flying all around him, the cold biting at his nose and ears.

"Sorry, I had to make sure I had everything marked." Melvin said hurrying to the door and putting on an old coat from the closet that used to be Bakura's.

"You know you could at least ask, just because I'm dead doesn't mean I still don't own this house." Bakura said, floating down the stairs.

"Yeah well you're lucky you can't feel the cold, and that you can chose whether to walk or float, I mean you can go through walls for goodness sake" Melvin said, grabbing the envolope that Marik was holding and shoving regestration papers into it.

"Huh, Melvin your lucky they let you in because of me" Marik said ushering Melvin out the door.

"Who?" Melvin asked.

"The school, dummy." Marik said closing the door behind Melvin.

"Oh yeah, it's cause of your whole nerdiness that we get to go to school that's right. I forgot" Melvin said, walking down the sidewalk with his hands behind his head.

Marik rolled his eyes. "Well you should really be more greatful they said that this year if you don't get your grades up then I would be the only one going there next year. We're very lucky they let us come on scholarship."

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard this all before." Melvin said. Now the two boys were at the bridge that separated the town. The creek below was silently rushing downhill.

"What ever, so where is the post office again" Marik asked looking around. Melvin jumped on the railing that was by the old bridge. "Melvin get down, you'll hurt yourself."

"Yes mom, this way" Melvin said, jumping down and heading to the right.

"Wait up." Marik said running after his brother. Marik followed Melvin all the way to the post office. "Are you sure dad won't notice that his money is gone?"

"Marik, don't call him 'dad', he doesn't deserve that respect from anyone. And no he won't he'll be too drunk to notice." Melvin said shoving the envolope into one of the outdoor letter thingys.

"There, now don't worry about it. Even if he does notice, he doesn't know where we are, and if he ever found out, then it would be me getting it not you, so don't worry." Melvin said ruffling his little brothers head, which was easy because Melvin had grown a lot more then marik, now he was 6 inches taller then Marik.

"I have to, if you get beaten up I won't forgive myself." Marik said, dropping his gaze from his brother to the mailbox.

"why? I stole the money. You didn't do anything." Melvin said.

"I don't know… I just would. Because you're my brother and I'm supposed to protect you," Marik said.

"No I am supposed to protect you. That's the way it goes older brother protects younger brother. It's textbook."

"Wow, you actually mentioned something that has to do with school." Marik laughed. Melvin smiled and smacked his brothers back playfully.

"Like I said don't worry about it." Melvin said and started back toward the house. Marik starred back at the outdoor mailbox for second before following his brother.

The day before their birthday, which was four days from Christmas, they received a letter back from the school. It had their class schedual, a list of activities that will take place during the year, the information on the trip there and home, their dorm numbers, theirs were right next to each other according to the school map they also received, and a package that had school uniforms.

"They don't really expect me to wear this, do they?" Melvin asked holding up a navy blue blazer.

"Yes, it's the school uniform, everybody has to wear them Melvin" Marik said trying his on.

"Including me?" Bakura asked. Melvin starred at him.

"So you're coming too, huh, so you can leave this house other than to go out to that tree of yours? That's interesting" Melvin said, looking through the papers.

"I always could leave this house I just never did because I like it better in here, that's all" The ghost said defensively.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever" Melvin said, then he seemed to find something interesting in the papers he was going through cause his face lit up. "Hey, I just realized something"

"What?" both marik and Bakura asked in unison.

"Since you're a ghost, you can be invisible and do things to people and they have no idea, right?" Melvin asked eagerly. Marik, realizing his brothers intentions, rolled his eyes.

"Oh boy" he muttered under his breath.

"Yeah so?" Bakura asked, then he too realized Melvins intentions. His eyes grew dark and a smirk crossed his face. "Oh, yeah I can"

"We're going to have fun this year" Melvin too had a smirk on his face. Marik didn't even bother, he just rolled his eyes again and started walking toward the stairs.

"While you two are planning immediate expulsion from school, I'll be upstairs taking a nap, I'm tired." He said and headed up stairs. He collapsed on the bed. He didn't feel tired so he went to go back down the stairs but something stopped him. He heard the other two boys talking and he wanted to know about what.

"So when do we leave for school?" Bakura asked.

"January 2nd, I actually can't wait to get away from this dark and gloomy town, don't tell Marik I said this but this place gives me the creeps. Have you ever noticed that no one likes to walk around town, I mean, there are only certain times of day people will actually go outside, and there are no kids playing around, it feels like a ghost town." Bakura gave Melvin a 'really' look. "Sorry not implying anything there."

"Yes I have noticed that. It's because there's what you might call a 'demon' over the town, everyone is scared to leave the comfort of their homes because of something that happened some time ago." Bakura explained. "The fog that looms over the town just comes naturally"

"What happened?" Melvin fell onto the couch and looked at the ceiling, right above his head Marik would be sleeping, or so he said.

"My death" Bakura said sitting on the couch next to Melvin. "It was pretty big news that my mom died, she was always so loved, adored. Every body was her friend, nobody would let her move away, not that she would. She said that this was the perfect location because the town was such a wonderful town, and it was close to a really good school, and this house was big, compared to the other house we used to live in before we moved here. The town wasn't the same without us around.

" Of course no one loved me I was always the bratty, stuck up delinquent who didn't have a future. I was the exact opposite of my twin, Ryou, Yes I have…had a twin too, but he didn't die like me. He got an opprotunity to stay for a few more weeks for some nerdy summer school thing. Because of that, he wasn't here when the fire happened.

"Right now he should be filling out his forms too. Yes he still goes to our school. When he got the news of the tradgedy he came home intime for the funerals, then went to live with my older brother, Akefia, again. Before we moved here we lived in the next town over. When we moved, Akefia was in his junior year so he decided to stay there and live on his own. Now he has Ryou with him. That's one reason I want to go back to school, so I can check up on him, make sure he's alright." Bakura looked toward the stairs and froze, just now noticing that Marik was standing at the bottom step, starring at him.

**That seems like a good place to stop. I hope you liked it. I know I enjoyed writing it. I'd say that this chapter kinda revieled a litt…lot. Hehe kind of a twist there, ain't it? Bakura still has some family that is alive. I don't know why I just like having the three Bakuras be brothers, so excuse me if I do/did that in other stories of mine. Again Please forgive me for skipping so much.**

**Let's see what else was there I wanted to say? I forgot oh well.**

**I have one request: Review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**So here's chapter 7, I know some of you are like "FINALLY!" and jumping up for joy (Fan-of-this-fic), but not to single anyone out (at-hem, fan-of-this-fic) no I'm just messing with you fan-of-this-fic, but I do love ya! So aaaaanyway, Gomen for the late-ness, I had writer's block. Enough talking, and without further ado, I present 'The Clubhouse 1, chapter 7' clap clap clap***

Marik starred for a few moments before he collapsed. "Marik!" Melvin said running to his brother's side, worry all over his face.

"What's wrong? Why did he pass out?" Bakura asked, Melvin looked up at him then back down at his brother.

"Ever since we were little, Marik's had problems breathing. My dad's abuse only made it worse, um... Where did I leave it?" Melvin got up and paced around the room.

"What?" the spirit asked.

"Ugh! I think I left it at that... how could I forget." Melvin said hitting the wall next to him with his fist. "Bakura, I need you to stay here I'll be back in no time"

Bakura watched, confused, as Melvin ran from the house, leaving him and Marik alone. Bakura lifted Marik up and brought him over to the couch. He didn't know what else he could do.

After about 5 minutes, Melvin came crashing through the door, breathing heavily. He handed a little object to Bakura who looked at it, then back at Melvin, confused.

"Put it to his mouth and press the tiny button on the side" Melvin said clutching at his side, gasping for breath. Bakura did as he was told. He was glad that he was able to touch, and pick up things, unlike those stories he had always heard when he was little, about the ghosts who couldn't touch, pick up, or move anything. He had always wondered about that.

Marik's chest began to rise and fall again. At first it was rapid then it calmed down to where he could breath normally. It appeared as if he were sleeping.

Melvin checked his pulse to make sure he was okay before collapsing on the couch.

"Remind me never to run again" he said closing his eye's and snuggling up to the arm of the couch. Bakura stared wide-eyed at Melvin. He didn't really seem like the type to snuggle up to a couch.

**So that was Chapter 7. Marik has asthma, I'm not exactly sure what it is, and it's the best I could come up with for this chapter. Gomen, I've been on MAJOR writers block. **


	8. Birthday!

**WOW! Two chapters in one hour! That's amazing! Anyway, I just wanted to say, thank you every one that has stuck with me this far XD, whoever you are, you know I love ya! Anyway, on with the chapter.**

"Good morning 13 year old" Marik opened his eyes and saw Melvin laying next to him on the bed, waiting for him to wake up.

"What happened yestereday? The last thing I remember is I came up to sleep then I went downstairs just in time to hear that Bakura had two brothers, then nothing" he asked.

"You had another attack, you didn't tell me you were having problems again" Melvin said, sitting up.

"I didn't know,"

"Happy birthday" Melvin changed the subject. Marik face fell for a second, then lifted into a smile.

"Happy birthday" Marik said back. He sat up, his expression fell again.

"Hey, I promise, we will not even think about that scum bag who calls himself our father, today is about you and me. Bakura fits in the mix too, if you want him." Melvin said, trying to cheer Marik up.

"Of course I want Bakura, but there is no way I can keep that 'scum bag who calls himself our father' out of my mind, how could I..." Marik looked down at the bed they were sitting on. Melvin lifted his chin to look him in the eyes.

"He will never touch you again, if he does, he'll have me to put up with. Got it, so don't think about him and I know what he did to you was... bad, but nothing will ever happen again" Melvin tried to reasure Marik, but only succeeded in making him more upset.

"It'll be there for the rest of my life. Both mentally and physically. It'll never go away, I don't think I'll ever be able to enjoy this day again. Ever." The hurt in Marik's voice was reflected on his face, tears threatening his eyes. He stood up and stretched. The shirt he was wearing lifted up just enough to reveal an inch of his bronze skin.

His back hurt at the memory of what happened three years ago. He turned around to face Melvin. "I'm sorry, today's not all about me, don't worry, I'll be fine." He sat back on the bed, "Today's about you too, and I'm sorry for being so dramatic about it, but I can't get over it, and I probably never will, at least for as long as I have this scar on my back."

Melvin put his hand over Mariks hands that were resting on his lap. "Marik..." they were intrupted by Bakura coming up the stairs.

"So you're finally up, Happy birthday you two" He said, sitting on the bed. "I walked in on something, didn't I?" he asked, glancing from Marik's face, which was filled with gloom, and Melvin's face, which was full of worry, to their hands.

"No, Marik and I were just discussing something" Melvin said then he turned to Marik. "Just focus on something else, I don't want to see your face like that again today,"

"Now let's go do something illegal before it gets too mushy in here" Melvin said spiritedly. He let go of Marik's hand, got off the bed and started walking toward the door with his hands behind his head, and an evil grin across his face.

"I'm with you there" Bakura said, rushing across the room and beating Melvin to the door.

"Today's going to be a long day" Marik muttered under his breath. He stood up and ran after the other two.

"So what do we do?" Marik asked his twin who shrugged his shoulders and continued to walk. Bakura had made himself visible to only Marik and Melvin so as not to freak peple out, seeing as he was a ghost and trasparent, and even though people would be able to see him, they would also see what's behind him in great detail.

"Where do you guys usually go?" Bakura asked just as they were passing the creek.

"We don't really go anywhere, if you couldn't tell, oh I know, we could go to the game shop" Marik suggested.

"Sure, Yugi did say he wanted to see me today" Melvin said turning in the direction of the Mouto's game shop. A little bell jingled above their heads as they entered. There was no one in there.

"Hello? Yugi?" Marik called.

"Hello, welcome to Kame Game Shop- oh hey guys!" Yugi appeared at the door of the storage room, dropping the box he was carrying on the counter, and tackled them into a tight hug. "Oh my gosh! Happy Birthday!"

"Thanks" Marik said, Melvin watched his brother from the corner of his eye. He was smiling, but Melvin knew better. On the inside he was thinking about their dad again.

"Yeah thanks yugi. You too busy working? or shall we head up to your room to play video games?" Melvin asked.

"Oh, no I'm not too busy, I was just getting something I needed out of storage. Come on in, I'll make you some tea, or hot choclate, or something" They went inside and Yugi got hot chocolate for Melvin and tea for Marik then they sat down.

"Hey Yugi? If I tell you something, promise you won't freak out?" Melvin asked as Yugi was getting the game station ready.

"Um... sure I promise" Yugi said.

"Well you remember how you asked why I wasn't coming over as often the other day?" Yugi nodded, Marik looked confused, then it struck him.

"Melvin don't" Marik said. He looked from Melvin to Bakura, who was sitting in an empty seat next to them, to Yugi.

"It's okay, we can trust Yugi" Melvin reasured Marik, who didn't look convinced but let his brother continue. "Well the reason why is Bakura" Bakura looked at Yugi, his arms crossed and an interested expression on his face. He was waiting for Melvin to get it out, and for Yugi's reaction. Marik kept his eyes on Bakura.

"Who's Bakura?" Yugi asked, looking curiously in the direction Marik was staring.

"He's..."

"I need to use the bathroom" Marik interupted Melvin. Everyone's eyes went to him.

"Next door, to the right." Yugi said pointing at one of his walls that indicated the bathroom was right there.

"Thanks" He stood up and walked out of the room, closing the door after him. He rested his head on the door, not really wanting to do what he had planned to.

He stood up straight and started to walk away. Outside, he took one look back at Kame game shop and took off running in the direction of his dad's house.

When he got there, he walked up the steps, and went inside. He was sure his dad wasn't there, because his truck wasn't there, but when he went inside, he was proved wrong.

"Why hello there, _birthday boy"_ His father said with a sneer. Marik could tell he'd been crying. Marik immediatly regreted coming back to this hellhole.

"What are you doing here?" He asked without thinking.

"I live here you isolent brat!" His father shouted. He was hugging a picture of Marik's mother.

"Not what I meant, why are you here now?" Marik asked, His father stood up, dropping the picture and walking over to his son.

"So you thought you could sneak into _my_ house, without my knowledge, well since you're here, might as well ask you where you've been these last few months. Staying at a _friends_ house, cause I thought you didn't have any friends." Marik was now being held to the door by his dad's large hand up against his neck, Marik didn't let it look like it bothered him, he was not going to give his father the saticfaction of knowing his son was scared of him, even though it was deadly true.

"'S what you get for thinking"

Smack!

Marik clutched his cheek, which was now red.

"Don't talk to me like that, you murderer!" His dad's face was inches from his. He could smell the alcohol on his breath.

"I'm not a murderer!" Marik shouted back. _I'm in for it now,_ he thought.

Melvin had just won for the tenth time against Yugi, and twice against Bakura. Yugi thought it was 'super special awesome!' that Bakura was a spirit and was able to pick things up, and that he was 'taking care of' Melvin and Marik.

"Soda, anybody, oh sorry Bakura." Yugi said, placing the three soda's on the coffee table.

"Marik's been in the bathroom a long time, is he constapading or something?" Melvin said.

"That's constapated." Yugi corrected him.

"Not my point, where'd you say the bathroom was again?" Melvin asked, setting down the controller and stood up, ignoring the drinks Yugi brought.

"Next door" Yugi pointed to the wall again. Melvin left the room for a minute then came back with a look of panic on his face.

"He's not there" he said. He picked up his jacket and hurried toward the exit to the room again.

"What do you mean he's not there?" Bakura asked.

"I mean there's no one in the bathroom and that's the only bathroom in this house. Plus I checked the kitchen, your grandpa's room, Yami's room, the game shop, he's not here!" Melvin shouted and took off out the door.

Marik woke up with an intense headache. His ribs were in worse condition then his head, which he soon found out when he tried to sit up. He poked them and winced. _Damn, maybe I shouldn't have snapped at him, especially since he was drunk, _He thought.

At the thought of his dad, Marik's head instantly looked around. _Whew! he's gone. _He attempted to sit up again and failed. _What am I gonna tell Melvin, I told him I was going to the bathroom, it's been _Marik looked at the time, _2 hours._

Marik tried to sit up again and this time, he was able to, Grabbing the edge of the coffee table to help him stand completely up. He caught his breath and staggered over to the door. He gasped at the cold chill of the outside when it hit his face.

Melvin ran down the street next to his 'dad's' street. _Where are you Marik?_ he wondered. Bakura was floating(cause though he can pick stuff up and sit on stuff, he still can float,) next to him and Yugi was a little behind, because he was littler and wasn't that good at sports, unlike Melvin.

Melvin turned up the devil's street and instantly paused. Marik was staggering down the sidewalk. "Dammit!" He took off and reached his brother just in time to catch him from falling onto the pavement, unconscious.

"Yugi, Bakura help me!" Melvin said when Yugi and Bakura got to him.

Marik woke up from a very violent dream where he went to his dad's house and kicked him in the ribs, over and over, then decided it was time for his son to lose his virginity, but from the pain that overwhelmed Marik when he did wake up confirmed that it wasn't a dream. He tried to sit up.

"Marik, no, you'll hurt yourself worse than you already have" Yugi said, pushing Marik back down onto the bed.

"Where's Melvin?" Marik asked.

"Downstairs, he was so worried about you, you winced in pain as he grabbed you around your chest and thought your ribs were broken. I had my older brother Yami come over and check up on you, since he's studying to be a doctor, and he said they're just bruised, they'll heal soon enough" Yugi informed him. Marik nodded, and sat up, much to Yugi's protests.

Just then, Melvin came through the door. Marik and Yugi looked over at him. His face said he was hurt, deeply. He walked over and slapped Marik.

"Ow, what was that-"

"Dammit Marik!" Melvin interupted, "I've told you time and time again not to go back to that bastards house! But do you listen? No! You just have to go back and get beat up _again!_ Why don't you ever listen? It's so simple, don't go back, as far as I'm conserned he's just another fat old bald guy on the streets." Melvin finished his rant.

"That hurt" Marik pouted, rubbing his cheek and looking down at his lap. Melvin sighed.

"I was just so worried, don't, don't give me that face" Melvin said turning away from Marik and Yugi, Yugi wasn't surprised at how much Melvin cared for Marik, it wasn't that different from how he cared for Yami, and how Yami cared for him.

"I'm sorry Melvin, I just went there to say hi to mom, dad wasn't even supposed to be there, but come to think of it, he has taken a day off work to mourn and beat me up every year since we were 1. And you're right, I shouldn't have gone back, I just couldn't help it. I'm sorry" Marik apologized to Melvin, grabbing his hand and tugging on it.

"I'm sorry i hit you" Melvin said quitely, continuing to look out the window. Marik tugged even more on Melvin's hand, wanting a hug. Yugi continued to watch.

"Will you two just hug already" everyone turned to see Bakura looking bored at the doorway. Marik winced in pain as Melvin wrapped his arms around him. Melvin instantly let go.

"Sorry, forgot, bruised ribs" Melvin said, then turned around to Bakura. "Happy?"

"Yes, I am actually, now that that's out of the way, I'm going to go do... something" Bakura said, turning and walking right through the bedroom door.

"So lucky" Yugi said under his breath. Marik pulled Melvin into another hug, not caring about pain.

"Are you crying Melvin?" Yugi asked.

"Shut up!"

Bakura smirked at the arguement that Melvin and Yugi were having because of Melvin 'crying' while Marik teased Melvin. _Some t__hings will never change._

**So, I was going to upload this chapter yesterday, since it was my birthday as well, but I got psitracted and never got to finishing the chapter so today I sat at the computer, and wrote. I actually like this chapter! XD**

**I am so mean to Marik, though, I can't help it. Gomenasai Marik! Yes Marik lost his virginity to that Bastard of a father, who took some time off work to say goodbye to his wife for the… 13th time. Any way, I hope you liked the chapter.**

**I want the next chapter to be their farewell to 'summer', meaning the day before school starts. But then again, I haven't kept very many of my promises now have I?**

**Marik and Melvin are super cute! I love them! XD**

**Until next time, Enjoy!**


	9. The last day of summer

Chapter 9: The last day of summer

"Hurry up Marik, we're going to be late!" Melvin called up the stairs to his brother. He had been waiting all his life to be able to actually experience this. It was the New Years Day Festival that happened every New Years.

Even though Melvin wasn't beat up by their dad, he still was kept inside most of the time. It was just recently that Marik and Melvin were allowed to go outside, and do whatever they wanted, because their dad decided to take more shifts at work, but Marik barely went out unless his dad was home. He decided that if he never saw him, he wouldn't have to face his torture.

Even though they went outside, they had never been to the New Years Festival. They never had the money to go, but today Melvin stole some money from their dad so they could go.

"It's not me, it's Bakura. He's a ghost and he can't decide what to wear!" Marik replied from upstairs, where he was helping Bakura 'pick out an outfit'.

"Excuse me for trying to look fashionable." Bakura said in response.

"I'm extremely fashionable, and I take less time picking a friggin' shirt!" Marik said. He picked up a shirt that was striped white and blue. "What about this one?"

"Perfect!" Bakura said taking the shirt and putting it on. Instantly it became translucent.

"How can that happen?" Marik asked, no one inparticular, in confusion. "Any way, let's go!" He grabbed Bakura's hand and shivered from how cold he was, and rushed them down the stairs, Bakura snickering behind him.

"Finally!" Melvin said, opening the door for them.

"Sorry!" Marik said simply rushing past him. He followed closing the door.

It was surprisingly sunny outside. Melvin thought for sure it was going to rain or snow, or something today.

"Yes, now I can work on my tan!" Marik exclaimed. Bakura started cracking up.

"Marik, you know that when you, your parents and your grandparents are Egyptian, you're naturally tan" Melvin stated matter-of-factly.

"Oh, Melvin, I love your logic" Marik said.

"And I love that shirt!" Melvin said, Marik looked down at his shirt. It was a black tank top that Melvin let him borrow, with Black and white button up shirt, that was unbuttoned.

"I love it too, though it's not really that good with keeping out the cold" Marik said, folding his arms and shivering to make true to his statement.

The festival was just around the corner, and they could hear all the excitement and chatter from there. Marik grabbed Melvin's hand, and squeezed Bakura's since he didn't let go before, and started to run.

"Wow!" both Marik and Melvin said in unison as they took in the goings on at the festival. People were everywhere. Some dressed in kimonos, some just in regular everyday dress. Japanese lanterns hung from strings everywhere, though they wouldn't be lit until that night, they were still pretty. Booths were covering the edges of the park, along with the people, going back and forth from booth to booth. In the background, there was a big gong. All in all, the two knew they had never seen anything so beautiful, except for they're school during the winter.

Bakura had been there many times, even after he died. This was one of the happiest days of the year in that town.

All three walked around for a while hand in hand, just looking at the booths. Quickly, Marik rushed them over to the fishing booth.

"No Marik, we don't have a place for a fish, besides we leave for school tomorrow, and they said no pets, it would just die." Melvin said when Marik said he wanted to try and catch one. Marik pouted, cause he knew his brother was right, and no matter how much he begged, he knew it would all be for one day. Plus he would be carrying it around all day, since they planned to be there all the way till that night when the town set off the fireworks.

"Hey, I saw a cotton candy booth just down the row." Bakura said when he saw Marik's pout. Marik instantly cheered up. He didn't know what it was, but if it had 'candy' in the title, then it was surely candy, and Marik loved candy.

Bakura led them to the Cotton Candy and Melvin bought one for Marik, he didn't feel like having candy right then. Plus he could just steal some of Marik's.

They walked around, playing games, getting little souvenirs, and more treats, which by the time sunset came, Melvin regretted, because Marik would have been bouncing off the walls if there were any walls outside.

"Marik calm down, you're on a sugar rush, thank you Bakura" Melvin said tightening his grip on Bakura's hand.

"Ow, my pleasure" Bakura managed to free his hand from Melvin's death grip.

"Oh, oh, oh, oh, we should go get more cotton candy" Marik suggested.

"No!" Melvin said instantly, while Bakura snickered. "No more sugar for you, let's go find a spot to watch those big explody things in the sky."

"They're fireworks" Bakura said.

"Whatever they are, I heard they're pretty" Melvin said looking around for a spot. He found one and rushed Marik over to it, Bakura followed.

"Perfect" Melvin said sitting on the grass, and pulling Marik down with him. By now the sky was almost black and filled with stars. Marik lied down and fell into a light sleep.

Bakura sat in Melvin's lap. Melvin set his chin on Bakura's shoulder, and took a deep breath.

"Something wrong?" Bakura asked, turning his head to look at Melvin.

"No, I'm just sad this whole day is almost over. You saw what Marik was like today, he was so happy. This is the happiest I've seen him, ever." Melvin closed his eyes. "I wish our dumb-ass father didn't have to mess that up."

"You really care for Marik, don't you?" Bakura said. He kept his eyes on Melvin.

"More than anything" Melvin said simply. Bakura didn't say any more but place his hand over Melvin's and Marik's. The fireworks started.

"Marik! Wake up!" Bakura said.

"I'm up!" Marik said sitting up. They sat and watched the fireworks. Marik laid his head on Melvin's shoulder.

When the fireworks ended, Bakura stood up and stretched. Melvin saw that Marik was asleep and he him home.

**So this is chapter 9, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. You have my dad to thank for that, because, since schools like 4 weeks from starting, he's getting me back on a 'regular' sleeping schedule and I got grounded from the internet last night for staying up too late, so I sat down and wrote this XD**

**Anyway, just saying, in case I didn't say before, Marik didn't mention anything about… losing 'it' to his dad, he decided to keep that a secret.**

**Chapter 10 will be uploaded shortly too, I hope that I can make up for all the time I kept you guys waiting so long by uploading a bunch of chapters within like a weeks time. Chapter 10 is their trip to school, Chapter 11 will be a short chapter about how I split up the dorms and Chapter 12 will be the first day of school.**

**Hope everyone likes this! XD**


	10. Welcome Back!

Chapter 10: The first day at school

"Hurry up Melvin, we're going to be late!" Marik called up the stairs to his brother. "How long does it take to put on a friggin' uniform?" He muttered. Marik decided to change when he got there, so he was wearing his favorite purple hoody with two chains randomly placed in the middle, with black pants and a blue belt with a gold buckle, and of course his gold jewelry.

"Sorry, Bakura again, he just had to pack, cause even though we wear uniforms, he doesn't." Melvin came down the stairs carrying a suitcase, which looked like it could fit everything in that room, excluding the furniture.

"Is that for Bakura?" Marik asked.

"No this if for me, and you I guess." Melvin said. Bakura came down with a much smaller suitcase that was slightly transparent, like him.

"That's for you." Marik half asked, half stated. Bakura nodded. "Okay, let's go!" Bakura made himself and his suitcase invisible.

The walked to the place the bus picked up all the kids from this town. Marik didn't recognize a lot of the people there. They were all wearing the school uniform except for one. He had black hair that when it was up in a ponytail, which it was, reached just a couple inches below his shoulders. He was wearing a black shirt with no sleeves and a red over coat, which also had no sleeves. He had the most beautiful green eyes Marik had ever seen, and the eyeliner around his eyes, with one spike like strip of eyeliner down his cheek, made them look even more mesmerizing.

He was looking around bored at everyone there. Then his eyes landed on Marik. Marik wanted to look away but felt like he was lost in a world of green.

Just then, Yugi came over, wearing his school uniform, to say hi them. Marik blinked out of his daze and looked away from the other boy.

"Hey Yugi!" Marik greeted.

"Who were you looking at?" Melvin asked slyly, a grin across his face. Marik stole another peek at the other boy, who was now talking with someone.

"No one" Marik said quickly shaking his head.

"Oh, I see. Someone's embarrassed." Melvin nudged Marik, who told him to stop it.

Bakura knew whom Marik was starring at, and he didn't like him one bit. Duke Devil. He hated the name. He hated everything about Duke. He had always been a show off. He was always flirting with Ryou and Bakura hated it.

Bakura knew Duke had just at that second, set his eyes on Marik, and Bakura knew that he would start doing the exact same thing to Marik as he did to Ryou. Only he only flirted with Ryou to get to Bakura, and it worked. Bakura once got so pissed at Duke that he lost his temper and had to be pried of Duke by three teachers. Let's just say he was using a lot of concealer for a while after that. Bakura decided he'd warn Melvin later.

While Melvin and Yugi were talking, Marik snuck another peek at the other boy with black hair. He was now on the phone, which looked like a really important call. He looked over at Marik again, and once again, Marik was lost in a sea of green.

Just then, the bus pulled up and the boys started grabbing their stuff and filing on the bus. Marik jumped on the bus and took one of the seats in the back. Melvin sat in the seat in front of him with Bakura who was, of course, invisible.

Marik began to star out the window at the mountains far off. Someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned his head and was instantly engulfed in the same green sea that he had already been in twice.

"Hey, are you saving this seat for anyone?" His voice made Marik want to melt away. His heart began to speed up. Marik shook his head. "Can I?"

"Go ahead" He said and scooted over to give the boy some room.

"Hi, I'm Duke, Duke Devlin." Duke extended his hand. Marik took it.

"Marik Ishtar" Marik replied and looked out the window again.

Bakura glared at the stupid raven-haired boy who had just introduced himself to _his_ best friend. He wasn't going to let this happen. He wasn't going to let Duke just sit there and stare at Marik, he couldn't. But he couldn't tell Melvin without making a big scene, and he was a ghost so he couldn't just talk to Duke, especially since Duke knew Bakura.

Bakura growled under his breath, Melvin looked over at him, though Melvin couldn't see him, he still knew where he was.

"What?" He asked. Bakura looked at him.

"Nothing, tell you later" He said.

"I don't think I've seen you at school before, are you new?" Duke asked. Marik turned to him again.

"No, I've gone to this school since preschool. I've just always been studying in my room or something. I'm not really that social." Marik said. Duke nodded.

"So what grade are you in?" He asked.

"8th " He responded.

"Me too, I like your outfit by the way, I thought for sure that I would be the only one not wearing my school uniform, but that thing is uncomfortable, I can't stand it" Duke said.

"Oh, me too. This is my favorite shirt, so I thought 'why not meet my new classmates in it'" Marik said, he already knew he would get along with Duke just as well as he gets along with Bakura. The bus started up and began to move.

"Yeah, this is my favorite shirt too." He said then pulled something out of his pants pocket. "Do you have an Ipod?" He asked.

"No,"

"We can share" Duke said giving one of the ear buds to Marik, who looked at it weirdly. "Put it in your ear, like this" Duke said, putting his in his right ear. Marik looked at it then did as Duke told him. Duke pressed a button and music began playing into Marik's ear.

"This is my theme song" Duke said, "its called 'Sexy Back' by Justin Timberlake."

"Oh, I like it" Marik smiled at Duke and continued to listen.

"Damn him" Bakura said. Melvin was already asleep, he and Bakura stayed up late the night before talking about random stuff that mostly included Marik, though Marik was fast asleep upstairs.

Duke looked at Marik, who seemed to be enjoying the music immensely. His eyes were closed and he was moving his shoulders back and forth to the beat. _He's going to be one hell of a dancer._

When they arrived at the school, Marik got up and stretched. His hoody revealed most of his perfect tan abs. Duke stood up and grabbed his stuff and got off the bus like everyone else. Marik woke Melvin up and got off the bus too.

Melvin followed with his suitcase and hoped Bakura was following. A few teachers were beckoning the boys forward and into the main hall aka the cafeteria. Marik, Melvin and Bakura went in as a group and saw a big board with all their names on it, followed by a letter and 2-3 numbers.

"Let's see… Melvin Ishtar I-24." Melvin said.

"Marik Ishtar I-82." Marik said.

Bakura looked around for Ryou's name. _Ryou Touzoku I-24._ "Hey Melvin, Ryou's your roommate" he said.

"Really?" Melvin looked for Ryou's name. "Oh cool! I guess I can get to know both Touzoku twins, now can't I? What about you Marik?" Melvin asked.

"I-82"

"Now! I want every eighth grader to go to their dorms immediately! School starts tomorrow; I don't want anyone coming to me saying they need more time. And for all of you who decided the school uniforms are not good enough to wear to school, uniforms are to be worn during classes from tomorrow, until the last day of school." The councilor said through a bullhorn.

"Great, that's one thing I didn't miss about this place. Let's go, Bakura, where are you going?"

"I think I wanna go with Melvin for now, to see Ryou" Bakura said, still invisible.

"That's fine, that'll let me get to know my roommate without you there" Marik said. "I'll get my stuff later, bye" He started walking to his dorm. "I-82, I-82, aw, there it is" He found it, and walked in.

"Well, why don't we find out who Marik's roommate is?" Melvin said looking through the board. "Let's see, I-82, Duke Devlin" Bakura froze.

"Duke?" He said in horror. "Duke?" He looked at the board to make sure. "Duke!"

"Is something wrong?" Melvin asked, confused.

"No, no, he's just the person who's going to try and make Marik his new boyfriend." Bakura said. Melvin 'puff'ed.

"But Marik's not gay" he said simply.

"But with Duke near him, he'll surely switch gears." Bakura said, turning around and starting in the direction of the dorm rooms.

Duke walked in to his dorm room and wasn't surprised that his new 'roomy' got there before he did. After all, Duke had planned it that way. Marik was lying on his bed with his feet on the wall, eyes closed.

"Hey, Marik you're my new roommate?" Duke asked, setting his stuff on the bed. It wasn't really a question, but more of a statement. He'd planned for Marik to be his roommate.

"I guess if you're in dorm I-82?" Marik said without even opening his eyes.

Duke sat on his bed and pulled out his Ipod. Marik sat up and looked over at the other person in the room to find Duke Devlin sitting there, listening to his 'Ipod'. The feeling he had on the bus instantly came back.

"Bye Akefia" Ryou said cheerfully as he opened the door and stepped out of his brothers truck.

"Bye Ryou" Akefia reached over the seat and hugged his brother. "Be good"

"I will, bye" Ryou took off in the direction of school.

"Bye" Akefia said, watching his brother disappearing into the crowd of k-12 boys. _I wish Bakura were still here._ Akefia drove away from the school and drove down the streets. He stopped at a gas station since his tank said Low. He wiped a tear out of his eyes before he got out.

Marik sat next to Duke on his bed and watched the screen of his Ipod. Duke was flipping through the songs looking for his theme. As soon as he found it, he took one ear bud out and gave it to Marik, who accepted gladly.

The two were so engulfed in the music; they didn't hear the knock at the door. The door swung open and Melvin came in.

"Oh hey Melvin, this is my new roommate, Du-" Marik started.

"Duke Devlin, I know, Ba- someone told me" Melvin interrupted. "Um, Marik, can I talk to you for a sec.?"

"Sure," Marik gave Duke back his ear bud and went into the hall with Melvin. Bakura appeared in front of Marik.

"Do you know why you're Duke's roommate?" Bakura asked.

"Cause the school board drew that?" Marik said.

"Yeah and the school board is Duke's dad. Duke saw you at the bus pick up and decided to get close to you, you remember when he made that call? That was too his father telling him to put you and him in the same dorm room." Bakura explained while Marik shook his head, not believing him.

"N-no, he d-didn't even know my name before we met on the bus. How could he have?" Marik said, "Now if you'll excuse me, I don't want to keep my new _roomy_ waiting." And with that, Marik stomped back into his room.

"He'll never believe me without proof, will he?" Bakura asked Melvin.

"Never" Melvin confirmed. "Now time for me to meet your brother."

"What did they want?" Duke asked as Marik entered the room looking a little angry.

"Oh nothing worth mentioning." He replied and lay down on his own bed.

Ryou walked into the dorm building and looked at the big chart that hung in the cafeteria. He was in room I-24. When he got to his dorm he was met there by another teen that looked like he was from Egypt. He had spiky blonde hair, dark purple eyes, and was tall for 8th grade. He was wearing the school uniform but you could tell he had armlets around his upper arms and lower arms. His neck had a gold choker that didn't look that comfortable to wear and golden spikes were dangling from his ears. The gold went really good with his bronze skin.

Ryou felt butterflies immediately begin buzzing around in his stomach as his heart sped up. Ryou heard the teen mumble something to his right then smiled at Ryou and extended his hand.

"I'm Melvin Ishtar, are you Ryou? Of I-24?" Ryou was surprised this stranger knew his name.

"Uh, y-yeah, I-I'm Ryou. Are you I-I-24 t-too?" He took his hand.

"Yeah, cool we're roommates" Melvin said entering the room. Ryou followed.

"Which bed do you want?" Ryou asked.

"Um… you pick"

"Left" Ryou said moving forward and putting his stuff on the left bed, then turning to Melvin. "Can you believe the New Year is starting? I mean it seems like yesterday school just ended."

"Actually it feels like I've taken a year off school, this summer… a lot happened. And I made a… close friend." Melvin said.

"Oh, where do you live?"

"Domino" Ryou paled. He hadn't thought about Domino or his family or… Bakura, since he went to live with Akefia.

"I… used to… live in domino." Ryou said.

"I know" Ryou looked at Melvin, confused, how did this stranger know that he used to live there?

"How…?"

"My friend told me, he's here right now, and he can hear everything you're saying. Bakura!" He looked in the direction of the window that used to be empty space, now his brother stood there with his arms folded.

"Bakura!" Ryou said standing up and hugging Bakura so tight it might have killed him if he weren't already dead. "But how?"

"I became a ghost, I don't know about mom but I have a hunch that she's gone for sure" Bakura said.

"But how am I able to…"

"… Hug me? Well all those books you read about ghosts were apparently wrong, because I can make myself known to anyone I want, like say if someone were to come in here that wasn't Marik, Melvin's brother, then they wouldn't be able to see me. I can touch stuff and pick stuff up if I want, like I could pick up a book and carry it if I want, but I can make it so I can't. And I can go through walls, but if I am picking something up, I can't. It's difficult to explain." Bakura said sitting on his brother's bed.

"Wow, Yay! Now I can be with you again! You should have told us, Keffy and me were miserable. Even though we don't talk about it, we were still thinking about you, or at least, Keffy was, I couldn't or else I'd break down completely."

"Well, how about I go try to convince Marik again, and let you two catch up." Melvin said, making his way to the door and exiting.

"'Convince Marik'?" Ryou asked.

"Melvin's brother got roomed with Duke. And it wasn't a coincidence either, Duke told his dad to put them together. Marik's already buddy, buddy with him, and Melvin and I are worried that he'll have Marik 'swinging that way' by the end of the month. And that would be… weird."

"Why 'Kura?" Ryou asked.

"I don't know… because, it's _Duke" _Bakura said with a sneer.

"Oh 'Kura, you'll never get over the times he would flirt with me, will you?"

"Nope" Ryou grinned, at least 'Kura hadn't changed.

"Marik! Open up!" Melvin said, knocking on Marik and Duke's door. Students chatter filled the halls as everyone was talking about their summers and trying to out do each other with how amazing their summers were. Someone came up behind Melvin and tapped him on the shoulder.

"What?" It was Joey.

"Marik and Duke left a couple minutes ago. Is something going on between those two? They seem to get along a little too well." Joey asked Melvin whose eyes narrowed at the information.

"Not if I can help it" He said and started looking for Marik.

Marik and Duke walked hand in hand through the gardens just outside the school. Birds were chirping in the trees nearby. Marik was pointing at various flowers and insects that he rarely ever saw or just thought they were pretty. Duke watched the teen with a grin on his face.

_This is going to be easier than I thought_. He thought as Marik pointed at a dragonfly, flying across the small pond that sat in the middle of a grove of trees.

"Marik? Can I ask you something?" Duke asked. Marik turned to face him.

"Yeah" He turned back to the dragonfly.

"Marik," Duke turned him back so he could look him in the eyes. "I know… we just met earlier today, but I can't help it. Marik will you…"

"Marik!" they heard Melvin's voice coming from a few trees down.

"Damn it! Come on" Duke said dragging Marik away from the sound of Melvin's voice, and into an even thicker clump of trees that shielded them from any unwanted eyes.

"Marik will you do me the honors of being your boyfriend?" Duke asked looking directly into Marik's eyes.

"Wha? Um… I, I don't… I'll think about it." Marik said averting his eyes to the ground.

"Marik! Get your ass out here!" Melvin yelled.

"On second thought, Yes" Marik said lifting his gaze back up to look into his new boyfriends eyes, and before he knew it, he and Duke were kissing.

"What are you doing?" _Looks like Melvin finally found us._ Duke thought and depended the kiss. Marik kissed back for as long as he could before breaking apart to get some air.

By this time, Melvin had reached them and punched Duke in the face.

"What are you doing?" Marik yelled as his boyfriend fell to the ground, hands over his face in pain.

"Giving that Dick what he deserves!" Melvin replied, rubbing the fist that had hit Duke with the other hand.

"Well I don't need you to protect me here, I can take care of myself, and I'm the one who started kissing him, not the other way around." Marik lied. Even though he had just met Duke, he felt so… good around him that he couldn't have that all taken away.

"He was the one because you're not gay!" Melvin shouted.

"How do you know? No one ever asked me, and I never mentioned anything about it, now did I?" Marik yelled back.

"You are not becoming gay because of him!" Melvin commanded.

"I was gay before!" _Punch!_ Melvin's fist connected with the side of Mariks face.

"What was that for?" Marik shouted from the spot on the ground where he had fallen. Melvin looked shocked at what he just did, though he couldn't help it, all his rage just came out at once, well twice, once on Duke and now on his brother.

"I, I'm…" He began.

"I don't care what you are! Go away! I hate you!" _I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!_ It echoed over and over again in Melvin's head as he just stood there with a shocked expression on his face as Marik stood up and went over to help Duke. Marik looked back at Melvin who was frozen on the spot, and glared at him.

"Are you alright?" he asked Duke.

"Yeah I'm fine, let's go get something to eat." Marik agreed and he and Duke walked away leaving Melvin there, still too stunned to move.

Melvin stayed there, and when he was finally able to move, he punched the tree in front of him, imagining Duke's face instead of the tree, then slid down the same tree and stared into the distance blankly. He stayed up against the tree for what seemed like forever.

Finally around sunset, Ryou and Bakura found him. "Melvin? What happened?" Ryou asked.

"I've done it" Melvin said simply, "He hates me. I can't believe he hates me!"

"He doesn't hate you, he could never hate you!" Bakura said. "He loves you too much to hate you. He'll get over whatever he's going through and forgive you."

"Not while his boyfriends around. He finally got to him Bakura, he finally got to him." Melvin said. "Duke is finally his boyfriend."

"What!" Both Bakura and Ryou said in unison.

"Yep, I caught them making out on this very spot." Ryou jumped back as if Melvin had just threatened him with a snake.

"Oh by the way, you missed dinner," Bakura said.

"Way to change the subject" Melvin said getting up and they all went back to their dorm.

**Okay, big shocker that Duke and Marik start dating, and on the first chapter he's in. Ryou makes his first appearance and so does Akefia. Don't worry, Duke and Marik won't be together that long, just so you know, but I do have some surprises intended for the future.**

**Yes, Marik was gay before Duke happened; he just kept it a secret. And Marik is a little bit of a drama queen in this chapter, but what ever. Marik and Melvin get into another fight! Seriously, can't they just get along for a little while? XD Love ya for reading!**

**By the way, this is the longest chapter I've ever done in my life! 10 pages on Microsoft word, 3535 words, of course that's nothing compared to Ladygodess's stories, which I happen to love!**


	11. Note!

**Hey guys! I'm SOO sorry for the delay! I just moved, and started High School, I'm very busy maintaining all A's, even if I do have three A-'s whatever, but still one of those is in PE and it's hard to make that up ok! Quit judging me! But any way, I'm very busy, and am still planning out the next chapter… I kinda want to… no I'll just go with my instincts, sorry if I disappoint anyone with the very surprising changes happening in the next chapter, but hey, at least you get something! But it probably won't be up for a while, I'm still writing it, I'll try to snag a little time during English, but probably not… but I'll still get it up… soon, hopefully! Again I'm so sorry for the wait!**

**LUV U GUYS SO MUCH *blows kisses at readers* BYE! I'll update soon enough!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey guys, I just wanted to say, you've most likely noticed, I deleted the other Chapter 12, but, honestly, I didn't like that one at all! And in all truth, I think they're cute together! I don't think I want them to break up, but as the chapters continue, who knows what will happen.**

"Hey Marik, I hate your brother as much as the next person, but don't you think you were a bit harsh," Duke said, "I mean, he is your brother and he just wants what's best for you, Even I can understand that."

"I guess, but he needs to start giving me space! I'm more mature than he thinks. I can handle myself well enough." Marik said glancing over at Duke. He noticed Duke's face was filled with longing as he looked up at the stars.

"I just don't want you doing anything that you'll regret later. No matter what happens, I don't want you to have major fights with your brother that'll break you two up, and then you go your separate ways, then when you really need him, he won't be there and you won't know what to do. I don't want you to know that kind of hurt." Duke said, not taking his eyes off the stars.

Marik starred at him, thinking, and before he knew it the words slipped out of his mouth. "You lost someone, didn't you?" He gasped at what he just said, put his hands over his mouth, and looked away, afraid that he might have brought up any terrible memories. "I'm sorry."

"My brother. He's 5 years older than me. He was a total slut! Slept with every girl he ever knew!" Duke looked at Marik, his eyes filled with tears. Marik knew Duke couldn't stand to talk about him so he decided to change the subject.

"Melvin and I never fight, well, we have a couple of times before, but we've always made up immediately after, we truly couldn't live without each other. Tomorrow I will go apologize, we'll make up, it'll be fine." Marik said standing up.

"Where are you going?" Duke asked.

"Back to the dorms"

"Can we… just sit out here for a while, it's nice. No snow clouds for a change."

"Sure, listen, what I said before… about being your boyfriend, I think we should get to know each other way better before rushing into any serious stuff. I mean, I just met you today, I don't even know when your birthday is!"

"February 14th" Duke cut in.

"Hey, that's…"

"Valentines day" Duke said looking back to the stars.

"Well, I know who I want to be _my_ Valentine." Marik said smirking.

"What ever" Duke said shoving Marik playfully. Marik shoved back.

**So that's the new Chapter 12! I hope you like it, and I'm sorry about the last chapter 12, I'm sorry but I cannot get over how much it sucked, plus the fact that I could think of anything good for Chapter 13 after that, but I can come up with a million Chapters for this!**

**Oh, and by the way, I'm sorry that I haven't uploaded anything recently, I'm very busy with school, and I'm trying to find a job, and I'm dealing with a LOT of stress. I'll try to update as fast as I possibly can!**

**LOVE you guys!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey guys! Here's another chapter for ya! Hope you like it!**

The next day, Marik woke up, realized what time it was, and groaned. It was 4:06, way too early for him to be up. He just barely managed to go to sleep at around a quarter after midnight. He would much rather not sleep at all then to sleep with only a few hours of sleep. It just made him more tired and that made it impossible to concentrate.

He rested his head back on his pillow, sighed, and tried in vain to go back to sleep. After 10 minutes of silent torture and sleepy restlessness, he looked at the clock, groaned again and sat up.

Marik went over to his drawers, opened the top one, and rifled through his stuff until he came across a little purple book. He glanced at Duke to make sure he was still fast asleep, he was, and tip-toed to the door. He opened it very quietly peaked outside in the hallway slipped through the door and looked quickly back in to make sure Duke hadn't woken up in the last 5 seconds before shutting the door behind him.

Quietly, Marik walked down the hallway to the stairs. He assended them, lightly touching each step with his big toe to make sure it didn't make a sound. At last, after a long, silent trip up the stairs, he arrived at a door that read "ROOF TOP".

Marik opened the door, it make a tiny squeaky sound, which seemed like thunder in the dead silence. After a horrible fit, the door finally came softly back to it's place in it's frame, and Marik was looking up at the still dark sky in thought, the tiny purple book clutched in his hands as they held onto the rail.

He breathed in, smelling the fresh winter breeze as it hit his face, gently whistling past his ears. After a couple minutes, he turned and saw a table and chairs sitting by the wall. The table had a half melted candle in an old candleholder that looked very rusted, and some matches in their box. He walked over and lit the candle.

He looked around to make sure some other lunatic who couldn't sleep wasn't around and sat in one of the chairs next to the table so he could see the little book. He opened it to where the string bookmark was and began to read…

"Monday, September 12

Dear Diary,

Josh went crazy again today. He told me that I'm waiting 'til the baby's born and that's that. He said that if I tried that again, I'd really pay for it after it's born. I shudder to think about what he means by that. If it's anything like what he's been doing to me over the last couple months, then I don't even want to think about it.

I don't know what's gotten into him lately, Diary. Ever since a few weeks after I told him about our little it, he's been going crazy. And I just don't know what to do about it. I can't handle him for much longer.

I… I just need to figure things out. And… and if I can't, then I don'tknow what else to do but walk right of the edge of a building or run into a burning house. Set our house on fire and lie in. Die in it…"

Tears started to sting Marik's eyes at his mothers words. She had taken her life for granted. _If she'd have known about me, she never would've…_

"Marik?" Marik looked up and met the deep purple abiss of his brothers eyes. Tears made everything blurry.

They starred at each other for the longest time before Marik flung himself at Melvin and absorbed him an a tight hug that if it were anyone but Melvin, they'd be suffocated in an instant.

"Melvin! I'm so sorry! I don't hate you! I could never, ever hate you! Please forgive me! I'm so sorry!" Marik clutched the back of his brothers shirt and sobbed into his shoulder. He didn't mean anything he had said the day before.

"It's okay," Melvin comforted him as they both fell to the ground, still in each others arms. Melvin noticed the tiny purple book on the ground that must've fell out of Marik's hands when he launched himself at him.

Their mom's diary, her last diary. He made a mental note to ask Marik for it later. Everytime Marik saw it, he always got over emotional. Or more, one specific passage in it, the one where their mom talks about her suicide. Both of them were sure she took some drug to kill herself but then before the drug took effect, she went into labor… or something like that. And then she died after she had him and Marik.

The sun began to peak through the window and woke Ryou up. He squinted and hid his face from the bright creature floating in the sky trying to make him blind. As soon as he got used to the light, he un covered his head to look at the clock. 6:03.

The alarm was set to ring at 6:30 but waking up thirty minutes earlier isn't that much of a big deal. He hopped out of bed to wake Melvin up… only, Melvin wasn't in his bed where he was supposed to be. _Is Melvin an early riser like me? Nah. But where is he._

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Bee-

Duke's hand smacked the annoying alarm clock, silencing its annoyingness. He sighed and got out of bed. He got halfway through his morning stretches before he noticed that Marik was gone.

He immediately put some clothes on and left the dorm room. He had no idea where he would find his boyfriend. He barely even knew him. He knew that he barely knew him, but his attraction to Marik was more than it was to Ryou the year before or even the other girl, what was her name again? Oh, yeah, Heather. He felt like he had to get to know him, meet him, kiss him, which he did.

As he walked down the hall at an unusually fast speed that was not quite running but was pretty close, he ran into something, or rather, someone.

"Ryou, what are you doing up this early?" Duke asked, helping a very confused Ryou to his feet.

"Melvin's gone. I'm looking for him." Ryou replied simply.

"What a coinscidence, I'm looking for Marik. You wouldn't happen to have seen him, would you?" Duke asked.

"Nope. Hey, we could look for them together." Ryou suggested. "Well, it does make sense, they probably couldn't stand being in a fight and got up, met up, and made up." Duke thought about this.

"Well, I guess. But," He looked at Ryou's cute and innocent eyes and decided not to say what he was just about to say, (which was "Or maybe the fight was for show and they're secretly making out behind our backs") and just snickered at the comment instead. When Ryou looked at him confused he said "Never mind" and continued forward, still giggling like a little girl.

Marik's eyes flickered open and again got lost in the deep purple eyes that were Melvins.

"Good morning sleepy head." Melvin said, wiping tears of sleep away from Marik's eyes.

"Morning… where are we?" Marik asked.

"We're on the roof, you came up here last night and then I found you and … it's almost time for school. We should go get ready." Melvin said helping Marik to his feet and walking him back to his dorm. Marik hugged Melvin then went into his dorm room to find it empty.

_Duke musta' already left._ Marik proceeded to get ready for his first day of school.

**So that's chapter 13! I've already started on 14! It'll be up very soon!**

**Review please!**


	14. Another Note!

**Hey guys!**

**Just wanted to let all my clubhouse fans out there know how much I love them and apprieciate how patient they're being with me! I also made a big decision a few days ago! In a couple days, I'm going to be changing the name of The clubhouse to "Trouble in Dullsville", and it might change later on. I'm sorry for any inconvenience, but if it's any consultation, I'm writing the original plan I had for The Clubhouse. The summery is below! It's most likely going to have A LOT of similarities to The Clubhouse but the story line is mostly different!**

**Thanks for sticking with me this long, all who did, and thank you for all the reviews and stuff I've received! Love ya'll! See ya soon!**

**The Clubhouse summery: Malik is a lonely orphan in foster care with his older brother, Marik. With the other kids teasing him, and Marik always out on dates, Malik is left all alone with not a friend in the world. One day while out wondering around, he comes across an abandoned, boarded up house that's falling apart. While playing around in the town he finds a broken down, abandoned house and decides to try and fix it up over the next few weeks and use it as a clubhouse where he can enjoy his loneliness, but what he doesn't know is that he's not alone…**


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